Maryland gubernatorial candidate wants free college tuition for DACA students

Maryland Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ben Jealous has proposed extending his plan of free community college tuition to DACA — Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals — recipients, those under the Obama administration program which allowed certain illegal immigrants who came to the US as children to work and study.

Free community college already was a platform of Jealous’s campaign; he added those covered by DACA early last month.

According to The Diamondback, Jealous would scrap grant program legislation signed by Governor Larry Hogan which, although incorporating DACA recipients, contains requirements such as a minimal GPA and a maximum family income of $150,000.

From the story:

Jealous has said he would raise taxes for his plan, which would cost $3 million a year, The Capital Gazette reported, but has proposed funding would come from the top 1 percent of earners in Maryland and the money saved from reducing the prison population by 30 percent, according to The Washington Post.

Sydney Poretsky, the president of this university’s College Democrats chapter, said it will be worthwhile.

She compared the proposal to the installation of a heated sidewalk outside the governor’s mansion in 2016. The $130,000 sidewalk, which a state agency installed so it wouldn’t need to be shoveled in the winter, was soundly condemned by Maryland Democrats in 2016.

“If we can allocate funds that way, we should be educating people as well,” she said.

Is this really about DACA, or padding the salaries and benefits of university employees? There is nothing so expensive as “free”, as I expect large pecuniary rewards to accrue to the employees of “free” colleges when student’s ability to afford them isn’t an issue.